How She Saw it
by MsAngelAdorer
Summary: For right now, discontinued. I plan to rewrite it and complete at some point.
1. The Princess' Ball

_Okay, this is my fanfiction for Winx Club season 3. Just as a warning for you "Rai English" watchers, this is based on 4kids, so if you don't want to read these quotes, this may not be the story for you._

_

* * *

_

_Summary: After all the excitement of the years before, the Winx Club are shocked to discover that the universe is once again in danger, this time from Baltor. What will happen? Hear the twists and turns of Winx Club Season 3 through Tecna's point of view._

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Winx CLub, but I do own some of the storylines that didn't take place during these episodes and some of my own made-up characters. _

* * *

_Chapter 1: __The Princess' Ball_

Summer. It was finally here. I couldn't believe it as I began to pack my things for the upcoming weeks. _I'm free,_ I thought, _and soon I'll be done here. It seems impossible. _

It did. It felt like it was just yesterday that I'd first come to Alfea, and now I'd just recently completed my sophomore year. How could time possibly go by so quickly?

As I packed my things, I did the math on my PDA to properly sort my clothes so that there wasn't to much or to little room for anything.

"Thirty-one point two percent in that suitcase and twenty-nine point seven-eight percent in there, and the remainder in the third one." I said to Digit, my bonded pixie, as my clothes went inside their proper valises in order.

"Precision is wonderful," Digit declared, smiling at the accuracy.

"A thing of beauty," I agreed, beginning to walk out the door of my room, "come along bags."

I laughed slightly with my pixie following me and I could hear my luggage coming right before I heard the door shut. _This was a very interesting year._

Oh, it had been. For one thing, Layla was the newest member of the Winx Club, and though she was a little different, she fit right in with the rest of us. Also, we'd defeated Lord Darkar, and hopefully for good. Unlike with the witches who just _had _to come after us again.

For me, however, the most exciting thing that had happened was that Timmy and I had officially started dating. He was just such a wonderful guy. Timmy and I at first were incredibly awkward around each other, but we always had a good time. Personally, I terribly regret the time when I'd treated him so horribly just because I was to frightened to say anything. I had no reason to complain. If I didn't tell him, I had no right.

But, at the same time, it also felt to me as if it did. Oh, yes, I'm perfectly aware of how illogical that is. I should know not be so silly, correct? Me, the smart girl? Normally I would've, but there was just something that made me feel as if my actions were justified, but thankfully I finally opened up to him, and what made the moment even more adorable was that after this, I'd gotten my Charmix. Afterwards, we hugged, and he said that I was sweet for letting him be the one to help me say something to earn myself a Charmix. Hopefully we'll never fight again. I don't think I could last another one.

As I walked outside of Alfea, I could see Stella, Bloom, Layla, Flora, and Musa standing outside.

"Not necessary," Bloom was saying, "watch." She put down the plant she was helping carry, and ran a short distance away. "Bags…_hitherus_!" She said, snapping her fingers.

Suddenly her bags began to fly out of the window by themselves with Kiko riding on top of them.

"So, what did you and Musa have planned?" Stella asked Layla.

"Today we're going to that great beach on the western shore," she answered.

"The waves are s'posed to be rockin' there," Musa added.

"Careful," Bloom said as she watched her rabbit, Kiko, beginning to fall.

Luckily, Lockette was able to catch him, but sadly she couldn't catch Bloom's and Stella's bags too.

I gasped as I watched them begin to fall. _Please don't hit me_, I begged silently. _Or my friends. Just fall._

"I got it!" Layla assured us, and being the natural acrobat she is, she leaped high into the air and caught all of the bags. Sadly, just after she'd caught them, Lockette couldn't hang onto Kiko anymore so he fell, landed on Layla's face, resulting in her falling over and all of their suitcases landed on the ground, busting open.

"Do you know how long it took me to divide up my clothes between Mom and Dad bags?" Stella demanded, standing over Layla since she was still on the ground. But she didn't get an answer for her pixie, Amore, interrupted.

"Look up there!" Said she.

We all did. A burst of light filled the sky. "It's a sun gram," Stella explained, "from Solaria!"

"That's so cool!" Flora complimented.

"It most certainly is," I agreed, looking up in awe.

Out of the burst of light appeared a woman dressed in a yellow and blue outfit and she carried an official horn of some sort.

"Wanda's the official palace messenger. I wonder what she wants," Stella added.

Wanda suddenly made a scroll appear and it floated in mid air. "The royal court of Solaria is pleased to announce its official Princess' ball." She played her horn for a few seconds and the scroll turned into a hologram of Stella.

"A Princess' ball for me? I thought for sure they wouldn't have it."

"This is so exciting," Amore agreed.

"I don't mean to sound dumb, but what's a Princess' ball exactly?" Bloom asked.

"It's like a coming out party for royalty. You hold a Princess' ball when a princess is ready to officially enter royal society," Layla explained.

"Believe it or not, that's when they'd announce who your husband would be back when they still had arranged marriages," Musa added.

"Some kingdoms still do."

"Oh yuck. Can you imagine?" Stella asked.

A hologram of Stella's father, King Radius, appeared. "You're going to love your party honey," he said, "and I have a surprise announcement that I'm going to make that I'm sure will make you very happy."

"Okay, everyone's coming to Solaria," Stella announced, deciding for us.

"But my parents," Bloom interrupted.

"Your parents have to let you go," Stella told her, coming to her, "a Princess' ball happens only once in a lifetime and I have to share it with all of you."

"Don't worry I'll be there," Bloom promised.

And, it was decided. I was so excited. To get to go to the big Princess' ball of one of my best friends sounded like it was going to be an awesome time.

* * *

Later that day, I began to start helping Stella invite guests to her big party. I was showing her how one of my new gadgets that I'd recently gotten for my computer worked.

"You just load it into the magi port and it invites everyone from your Facebook," I explained. Using my magic, I made it appear and hooked it up to my laptop.

"Remember," she told me, "we want to keep the guest list under a thousand."

"Here's Timmy," Digit said, as it showed a holographic picture of Timmy, showing that he'd been invited.

"And there's Sky," Lockette added.

Walking with a pile of folded clothes, Musa approached Stella who was on the floor. "It's great your pops is throwing a Princess' ball for you, Stella. Not a lot of dads know how to do that stuff. You know?"

"Including mine. My mom's the party planner," Stella told her.

"Maybe she's in on it," Bloom suggested, joining the conversation. "_Seperatus_," she said, and the clothes went into the proper areas: One, Stella's suitcase; the other, the palm of Bloom's hand.

"I bet you're right. The invitation didn't say from King Radius. It said it was from the royal court. And the royal court is them together: Mom _and _Dad." She stood up, while saying, "I bet you they're getting back together! I bet that's what the surprise announcement's going to be. I'm so excited," and she squeezed Bloom.

"My 'rents are going to be my 'rents again. Can you believe it? _And_ I'm having a Princess' ball. _Combinus_! No more separate bags for you guys! I'm going to go rent a limo and go buy a dress and I want you all to come."

I thought it was cute as Stella was getting excited. Though, the chances that her parents were getting back together were against her belief, I didn't tell her, for it'd spoil the moment.

"Layla and I are going to the beach," Musa said.

"I'm game," Bloom told her.

* * *

After this, we all went to town together in Magix before we decided to split up. It seemed no matter what the topic was on the ride there, Stella _always _managed to change it to the subject of her Princess' ball. It didn't bother us though since, well, she's Stella and that's just how she is when she gets excited. There was no way around it.

"Here are the latest R.S.," I announced, "Riven's coming. Helia."

"Oh goody!" Flora said. Flora is just so adorable, it's amazing. How can one person stay so happy all the time? Well, she wasn't _always _happy, but it was definitely a majority was spent like this, but that was what made her Flora. And it was my obsession with technology that made me Tecna.

"Brandon," I continued.

"Why, daw-ling, of course!" Stella pointed out, raising her arms up in the air.

"Timmy and Mirta," I concluded.

"Did Sky R.S.V.P?" Bloom asked me.

"No reply yet," I said, shrugging.

"If he gets back to Eraklyon before he gets the invite, his parents will never let him go," she said, disappointed.

A few minutes later, Stella told us how this would work. "Okay girls. First stop is pizza. Like I always say: Gotta fuel up if you're gonna shop right."

We walked down the street and pulled up at this small pizza shop. We walked inside and I inhaled deeply at the pleasant aroma. Stella ordered for us and we talked as we waited for the employee to make it for us.

"They have the best pizza here," Bloom said.

"I know, and I'm starving," Musa agreed.

"And here you go," the man at the counter said, handing it to her in the box.

But before Stella could grab it, it was pulled away by some other girl. "Thank you!" She said, upsetting Stella.

"Excuse me, but that's our pie!" Stella told her.

"Not." The girl said. Then I could get a good look at her. She had grayish blue eyes, hair the color of Musa's, she wore dark pink lipstick, had a mole just under her right eye, and dressed in a gothic violet dress.

"I'm afraid it'll be ten minutes 'til the next one's out." The guy at the counter said.

"She won't mind waiting," the pizza thief commented, angering me. What right did she have to take food that somebody had waited for? None, that's what. And if she kept this up, it'd only be a matter of time before I spelled this girl into next week.

"Hey! I ordered that pizza." Stella told her.

"Possession is nine tenths of the law," the girl shot back, not caring about a word my friend said.

"Then I'm repossessing it!" Stella shouted, and began to grab the pizza.

"Get off!" The girl said.

"You get off!"

_That's right! Tell her Stella. _That girl was getting on my last nerve today. I could just imagine how frustrated my friend was herself.

They tugged and tugged until they both fell on the ground and the pizza broke open, spilling onto their clothes.

"My Dolce and Goblina!" Stella said.

"My Spella McCartney!" The blue haired girl was saying, looking down at her ruined dress. She stood. "_Vanishus_!" She said, and the stain disappeared.

"_Stainus Removus_." Stella stood also and cleaned her dress as well.

"What are you, Alfea fairies?" The blue haired girl demanded, getting in Stella's face.

"Yeah and what are you?"

"Betas," she replied simply, and there stood behind her two girls orange and pink hair that dressed in outfits similar to the first girl's.

"Tick, tock, tick, tock. Beta's rule, Beta's rock," they chanted, doing some sort of movement.

"Where's Beta? In the realm of cutesy?" Stella joked.

"At least we're not, from the realm of dork." The first girl said. It then became clear she did all of the talking.

"Snap, snap, snap," the backup girls said, snapping in rhythm. At this point I was ready to clock them with their annoying rhymes and such.

"Hey, you guys, why can't we all just try to get along?" Bloom suggested. She didn't want any trouble to start, clearly.

"Chimera's having a Princess' ball," the backup girl with pink hair said, throwing a hand up into the air.

"Cool, so is Stella."

"We're shopping for dresses," said the other backup girl, with orange hair.

"So are we," Flora told them. "So we have a lot in common. It's so nice to meet fairies from another Magix school."

"Woah. What are you made of? Gumdrops and sugarplum pie?" The girl I guessed was Chimera asked, getting into Flora's face.

"Hey! Don't diss my girl Flora!" Stella told her.

"Yeah, or else what?" At this I could tell it was a matter of seconds before Stella attacked this girl, and I had no problem with it. I'd had it with these Beta girls. Who did they think they were?

"Let's go find that dress now Stel," Bloom said, dragging her. "Nice to meet you Beta girls!"

"Good luck shopping," Stella said, turning around. "Oh, and that preteen meets Goth look is very appealing on you. I suggest you stick with it. Ah!" She gasped, as Bloom continued to pull her.

"Snap!" I said, snapping, completely mocking the Betas. I wanted to teach those stupid Beta girls a taste of their own medicine.

"Tecna!" Bloom scolded. Obviously she didn't find my joke funny.

"What?" I asked innocently, shrugging. "Nice one Tec," Stella complimented.

"Thanks," I said, smiling.

* * *

Later, I went with Flora to check out the second floor of the dress shop Bloom and Stella had went to so Stella could find that perfect dress to her Princess' ball.

I decided that since I was becoming a senior at Alfea, I should buy a new dress for this party. Flora helped me pick out a simple little thing that I thought the girls-and hopefully Timmy-would like.

And later we all met up with Musa and Layla at the beach. Sky managed to make it, and Stella showed us the dress she'd picked for her Princess' ball. But, suddenly, Layla was called back to Tides, so she went into the ocean. I was worried.

_Let's hope this isn't anything to serious_, I thought. But, oh how wrong I was. Oh, how very wrong I was.

* * *

_Yah, for those who noticed, I did revise the typos a little. _


	2. Beauty is a Beast

**

* * *

**

**Previously on Winx Club:**

_"The royal court of Solaria is pleased to announce its official Princess' ball." Wanda, the official palace messenger had said. She played her horn for a few seconds and the scroll turned into a hologram of Stella._

_"I bet you they're getting back together! I bet that's what the surprise announcement's going to be!" Stella had exclaimed, standing up._

_"My realm is in trouble. I have to go immediately." After having transformed, Layla had taken off into the ocean with the mermaid._

_

* * *

Chapter 2: Beauty is Beast_

_Poor Layla_, I thought, seated at my computer, trying to communicate with her, somehow. Bloom was standing behind me, and it was disappointing as each of my attempts failed. Every time they did, the only thing that would happen is that a red circle with an 'x' would appear on the screen.

"I've tried every way I know to get in touch with Layla," I was saying to Bloom, disappointing the fairy of the Dragon Fire more, "but nothing's worked." I turned around to look at her in shame.

"Do you think maybe one of Palladium's location spells might help?" She asked.

But before I could answer, Stella popped her face in the doorway in between my room and the common room of our dorm.

"Still no news from Layla?" She inquired, immediately going back into the common room, holding a fancy pink hat.

"Nothing at all," Bloom replied, stepping into the room herself.

"Musa and I struck out too," I could hear Flora say, as I decided to give up for now and went to join the other girls. "Layla seems to have disappeared into thin air."

"I'm starting to get worried. It's like she fell off the face of the realm," Bloom said.

I sighed. It'd been days since we'd last heard from her, and considering how urgent it was that she had to go to Tides, I could only imagine what kind of trouble was going on. And when I did, I blacked it out for it just made me worry even more for Layla's safety.

"Fret not," Stella said, trying to brighten the mood as she stood over the gray coffee table, putting the pink hat into a frilly purple and pink hatbox. "Layla's probably just really busy. And I'm sure we'll hear from her soon."

"Hey, go away," she directed to Kiko, turning him around. "Shoo. Layla's not about to miss the party of the century." And she seemed quite proud in what she said.

"What are you talking about? My birthday's not until December," Bloom told her, teasing.

"I'm not talking about your party." She paused when Bloom burst out laughing. "I'm talking about my Princess' ball, which is tomorrow!" She finished, making a face. After watching all of us laugh, she understood. "Oh, you were joking! That was a joke!" She said, throwing a pillow at her.

Silently, I laughed to myself. _Oh, how silly my friends can be. And it's still impossible to believe that that girl isn't our age. _It very much wasn't. Almost every day I had to remind myself that Stella was a year older than us do to that potion lab incident during her freshman year, forcing her to repeat the grade when she was readmitted. I never could fully accept it since half the time, she acted younger than we did.

Bloom hit Stella with the pillow, and as the pillow fell from Stella face, she said, "Bloom, don't you ever do that again. There's certain things that are just way to important to joke about. And my party's one of them." She stopped when pixie pets began to fly out of her hatbox. "Hey! I told you before. There' s no pets aloud at a Princess' ball." She pounded her fist onto the table and scared them away.

"Okay daw-lings," the Solarian princess continued, raising her arm into the air. "It's time." She took the box and placed it with the rest of her suitcases. "And on this trip, there will be no luggage snafus because I decided to travel light," she beamed, miniaturizing her things.

"I'm packed," Bloom told her, "but do we have to leave now?"

Stella took her ring of Solaria from her finger. It'd been so long since I'd last seen her use it, I barely even remembered that she still had it. "The first rule of beauty is that it requires time and preparation. So, let's not dally."

We all watched as Stella threw the ring into the air, it turned into a scepter, and she caught it. "Solaria!" She said, twirling it as she teleported Bloom and herself to her home kingdom.

"So, Tecna, are you doing anything today?" Musa asked me, looking up from the couch.

I shook my head. "I was just going to send a message to my family and then," I shrugged. "I don't know."

"Well, have you decided what to wear to Stella's party tomorrow?" She asked.

I nodded. "I picked out this dress not to long ago. Hopefully Timmy will like it."

"I'm sure he will, sweetie," Flora assured me, in the loving way she does with everyone.

I smiled and went to go send that message. I wrote them about how I'm so happy that Lord Darkar is defeated for good, I was having a great time with all my friends her, and that Timmy and I were dating(I added that in four times since my parents made a bet that I wouldn't ever get with him before I graduated. Well, they lost!).

Suddenly I realized I'd gotten an IM from Timmy. I smirked. _I hope he's having fun. Life is so boring now. _

**Timmy-the-hero: **Hey Tecna! How are you?

I smiled as I thought about that. How was I? Well, for one thing I most certainly was excited to go to Stella's Princess' ball tomorrow, but, than again, we all were. _Hmmm? _I asked myself. Finally, I wrote down the simplest thing I could, and the conversation continued there.

**Tecna-the-techno-fairy: **Oh, hello Timmy. I'm fine, just bored is all. Who knew how bored one could be when you're not in school and all the villains are gone. Catch my drift?

**Timmy-the-hero: **Yeah, I get where you're coming from. Are you excited for Stella's Princess' ball tomorrow?

**Tecna-the-techno-fairy: **Oh, definitely. I picked out the perfect dress, and hopefully you'll be willing to dance with me in it.

**Timmy-the-hero: **Tecna, it doesn't matter what you wear. I'll always think you look nice because you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen.

I blushed. Timmy always was such a nice guy. I feel bad for Musa sometimes because Riven generally doesn't know how to compliment a girl because of his sarcastic 'bad boy' nature.

**Tecna-the-techno-fairy: **Well, I guess I'll go now Timmy. I think I'll just hang out in my room for a while.

There was a few minute pause. I wondered what he would say. Sure, though we were dating, it was still _really _awkward for us to spend time with each other in person a lot of the time. We didn't know why, it just felt like that to us. Talking online was a much easier option.

**Timmy-the-hero: **Okay Tec. And, about Stella's Princess' ball, I hope you know that even though there'll be lots of other girls in dresses there, my eyes'll be focused on you only the whole time. I really care about you Tecna. I hope you know that.

**Tecna-the-techno-fairy: **Aw, you're so sweet. Talk to you again later Timmy. Bye!

I logged off and just sat at my bed, staring at the wall for a while. I thought I'd only been doing it for a little while, but the next thing I know, I wake up and it's morning already.

_That went by to fast, _I thought. _Why didn't Musa wake me up? _But I just forgot about the detail and later I ended up seeing the rest of the girls.

* * *

Eventually, the three of us changed into our dresses. Musa had her hair down and was wearing a long strapless gown with several different shades of pink, red, and orange.

I was dressed in a thin dress with lots of soft pink and bright green. The sleeves of it frilly and I had on a headband that was similar except it was all green. I hoped I looked nice, though everyone told me that I did.

Flora's dress was more of a traditional gown with the same color's as mine. When I looked at her, I imagined that that's what some of the characters Bloom has told me about from Earth would wear.

We ended up arriving later to the party than we had planned because Helia's ship had broken down, delaying the other guys that didn't go with us from getting there. The guys, as usual when we went off to places like this were dressed in their Red Fountain uniforms, and in this case, I thought they fit the occasion.

Finally, we landed in Solaria in the squad ship, all of us very excited for the night's event. Sky and Brandon were the first to step out.

"Alright, Princess' ball here we come," Musa was saying as she walked out with Flora. I was just behind them.

"Hey," I greeted to Bloom.

"I'm so happy you're here," Bloom said, running into Sky's arms.

"I'm hope we're not late," Sky replied, twirling her around. "We got delayed at Alfea."

_Aw, they're so sweet. Just as inseparable as ever. _

"Well, look's like it was worth it," Bloom said, looking over at us. "Your dresses are totally beautiful."

"So, where's Stella?" Brandon asked.

"You'll see her soon enough," was her only reply.

* * *

The grand ball room of the Solarian palace was amazing. It was a very large, open space complete with large amounts of windows, a smooth, shiny floor, and elegant staircases.

"I can't believe that Helia's ship broke down," Flora was saying. It wasn't that often that you would hear Flora complain about something, but this did involve Helia, and we all knew that she was quite sensitive about him.

"They might still make it," Bloom said, trying to cheer her up.

Suddenly, woman who looked exactly like Wanda began to play their horns.

"Look!" Bloom told us.

I looked up and saw at the front staircase a fancy curtain with the Solarian coat of arms. Once it'd been lifted and disappeared, out walked King Radius.

"Welcome my friends," he greeted, "and thank you all for coming today. And now it is with great happiness and joy that I give you the belle of the ball," he turned around slightly after he'd said this, "my princess and yours: Stella!"

At this, Stella walked in from the shadows and was dressed radiantly. I don't know what it was, but for some reason, I thought she looked even more beautiful in her dress the day of the ball then she had when she'd first shown it to us.

The king walked his daughter down the steps, chatting with her the whole way. Once at the end, keeping Stella's hand in his, he said, "My friends, I've got another announcement. This day is not only joyous because of Stella's Princess' ball, but also because this kingdom will soon have a queen again."

Stella gasped, looking up at him.

A woman in a feathery violet, lavender, and white dress walked over to the king. She took his hand then. I didn't know what was going on. I looked at the other girls. They appeared to be confused too.

"In one month's time, Countess Cassandra and I will be married." King Radius continued.

This shocked all of us, especially Stella. When everyone else applauded, we all gasped in horror. _Poor Stella, _I thought to myself I had watched her with concern. _It must be so disappointing to hear that not only are they not getting back together, now she's getting a stepmother. _

I saw Cassandra whisper something to Stella. Then Stella said something to her father and walked back over the rest of us.

"My life is over," she told us. "Do you realize that horrible Chimera and her countess mother are going to be my new family?" "Hey, look on the bright side." Musa said, trying to calm her down.

"There's a bright side?"

"Yeah, Chimera coulda had ten sisters," Musa joked.

"Excuse me if I don't laugh. I was hoping my parents were going to get back together. But…this? This is the worst thing my father could've done to me!" And she walked off, disappointed.

"I hope she's okay," Bloom said.

"She should be," I told her, "she just needs time to cool off."

Flora saw Stella walk away from Brandon and went to go assure him that she was fine.

Stella's father immediately convinced her to dance with him seeing how it was a Princess' ball tradition.

Not long after, Sky escorted Bloom to dance with him as well, leaving me and Musa standing alone with each other.

Even from a distance, I could tell that Stella didn't seem to be enjoying her father-daughter dance at all really. She still looked sad.

Suddenly, in the middle of her dance, Stella fell back onto the ground, moaning in pain of some sort.

"Sweetheart," her father said lifting her head up and holding her hand, "are you alright?"

She continued to struggle and she began to change somehow. Her skin grew puce green, her got bigger and were webbed, and her body grew more round, resulting in her dress to tear.

_What is going on?… She must've gotten spelled_, I realized. _But who did it?_

"Stella!" The king gasped, looking down at her.

She continued to groan and once her hands had left her face, she started to practically scream with worry.

Everyone gasped in amazement when they'd seen her.

After Countess Cassandra had whispered something to Stella's father, he said, "Guards, seize that awful creature. Lock her in the dungeon." Just after the first few words had been ordered, guards approached Stella with weapons.

"Daddy, it's me! Stella!"

People started to run in out fear at the sight of Stella in this new state. They must've thought she was a monster who would harm them.

"Bloom! Help!" Stella begged, reaching for Bloom's hand.

Bloom gasped as a guard approached her and she ordered, "Stop!" This knocked his weapon right out of his hands.

More of the party guests continued to run of the palace in fear of Stella hurting them.

As guards continued to try to go after our friend, we and the guys surrounded her to make sure she didn't get hurt.

"Tell the guards who I am," Stella told Bloom.

"Hey, this is Princess Stella."

"That hideous monstrosity?" That horrible Chimera girl asked. "That can't be Princess Stella."

As Brandon and Sky did their best to try to hold off the guards, Chimera commanded, "Guards, seize them all."

To my dismay, they listened to her and began to go charging after us. _Note to self: When I get the chance, I'm going to think up the perfect way of revenge on that girl._

"Come on girls!" Bloom told us. "Let's go!"

And so me, Bloom, Musa, and Flora transformed into our winx, complete with our Charmixes, just in case we needed the extra power.

Right after, the guards were about to attack Stella but she got away from them and ran up the stairs.

They chased after her to the staircase, but before they could shoot her, I flew in front of them and hit them with one of my attacks, knocking them down in the process.

"Tecna, take it easy," Flora told me, coming to where I was. "We don't want to hurt them." Together, we took off up the stairs.

"Maybe they just need a little beat down so to speak," I could hear Musa saying from the ballroom.

As I took off running with the rest of the girls through the palace, I was quite afraid for how Stella was doing. Had it hurt to change like that? How much could it have effected her self-esteem? Though, it didn't take long for those to be answered.

"I have a feeling we're not going to be invited to the next party," Musa was saying.

"I'll be happy if we just get out of here in one piece." Bloom said to her.

"Hey!" Said a voice up ahead, and we all stopped in our tracks to see who'd said it. When we took a better look, it was Stella.

This had surprised us, so Bloom and Flora-who were at the front-gasped.

"Oh no! I'm so ugly, I even scared my own friends," Stella said, turning away from us.

"I'm sorry Stella, I didn't mean to scream," Flora told her. "Come her sweetie."

_I feel so bad for her_, I thought as I watched Stella look sad again.

"Do you think Chimera put this spell on you?" I asked her. It made perfect logical sense since that girl had had it out to get Stella since the day they'd first met each other. What I wanted to know, however, is where she could've gotten the power to do this.

"What do you say we figure that out later?" Bloom suggested, since I could hear that the door one of the girls had sealed was being pounded on and the things put in front of it must've been falling. "Right now we need you to find the nearest exit out of this place." Bloom told Stella.

"Okay," she said, leading the way.

The door had finally been opened and the guards escaped inside, tearing after us.

"Since there's no hip-hop in the palace, how 'bout rap?" I could hear Flora say, "Ivy Wrap that is." And soon she'd caught back up with the rest of us.

"We need to speed up!" Bloom told us as we ran up stairs.

Taking her suggestion, Flora and I grabbed hold of Stella and carried her as we flew up the long, narrow staircase.

We heard the sound of guards again so Musa told us to turn around.

"Try to get into the dove tower," Stella said, pointing, "over there."

We took her advice and landed in front of a tall, golden door-well, it was actually two doors, but that didn't matter.

Using her magic, Bloom busted the door open for us. We went inside, and stopped to listen to what Bloom had to say. "Alright, if we go up, they won't be able to follow us."

While Musa and Bloom flew up, Flora and I continued to help carry Stella with us.

"I think we lost them," Flora announced.

"Is there an exit up there?" Musa asked.

"In the aviary," the Solarian princess answered.

We continued to fly, but out of nowhere, Stella says, "Oh, no! Here they come!"

I looked down and saw the palace guards on some type of magical moving platform, trying to go after us.

Bloom: "You guys go ahead! I'll block them with a fire wall."

Yet, they were prepared even for that, for they activated some type of shields and continued to chase us.

"We have to get out of here fast," the fairy of the Dragon fire said. "They're creating a back draft." And so we tried to fly faster, in hope losing them and to avoid getting hurt by the fire that was continuing to rise.

I saw Musa go up to a door and with a blast of her musical power, it instantly opened, revealing an aviary with lost of doves.

Once we'd gotten to safety, we took a quick break and landed, but it didn't last for long.

"Get the monster!" A guard ordered us, firmly grasping his weapon.

"It's not an monster. It's Princess Stella."

"She's lying," an elderly guard told the others. "Our princess could never look so hideous."

"He's right!" Another said, as the rest raised their weapons high. "Get her!" And they began to fire.

From the explosion, Stella ended up getting sent over to the other end of the room, crashing outside of the window, falling over the edge of the palace.

I gasped. _No!!!_

Bloom took after her. Flora had already hit her with some of her powers. Bloom flew down, in hope of catching her.

I looked down, watching as my friend continued to fall.

* * *

**Okay. That was Chapter 2. Wow, that was a long one. In my word document, it was almost ten pages, while the first chapter was almost seven. I hope you enjoyed it. Please review if you like it. **


	3. Pretty Pretty Princess

****

Previously on Winx Club:

__

"In one month's time, Countess Cassandra and I will be married," King Radius had said, to the great chagrin of his daughter.

"Guards, seize that awful creature!"

"Get her!" And Stella was hit, and crashed through the window.

"Stella!" Bloom had yelled, going after her.

_

* * *

__Chapter 3: Pretty Pretty Princess _

I watched helplessly as Bloom dived down to help save Stella. Stella was screaming as she continued to grow closer and closer to the ground. Finally, Bloom got close enough to her and grabbed her hand and tried to carry her up, but seemed to be having a hard time.

"The dark magic in the rain…" She struggled to say, groaning. "It's zapping my strength."

Stella yelled in fear as she saw that she was beginning to sink to the ground again. And finally, it became to much for Bloom and so Bloom had to let go, dropping Stella. The Solarian princess screamed probably as loud as she could.

Bloom gasped. She yelled up to us. "Guys, help me!"

The three of us flew down, taking after Bloom and Stella. I was worried. Not only that Stella might get hurt, but also, how would we break the spell placed on her? It must've been done with powerful dark magic that we hadn't learned how to overcome yet.

"I'm coming Stella," the Dragon Fire fairy assured her, reaching out for her hand. She managed to grab onto her hand again.

Flora, Musa, and myself zapped them with some of our powers to help Bloom. We gasped when they started to fall back on the ground again. _Oh no._

We flew toward them, and grabbed onto Stella. It grew hard for the rain was draining us, and rapidly. We did our best to hold and made it down safely.

"Wow, this rain," Musa pointed out. "It's like anti-magic."

"It weakened our spells and our strength, but luckily we still had enough winx left to save Stella," I added.

"The way I look," Stella said. "I'd probably be better off if you hadn't."

"We'll get you changed back Stella," Bloom assured her, giving her a small hug. "In the mean time, I think you look kinda cuddly."

"Yah, kind of like a cross between a frog and a bear. Or on second thought, maybe a dragon," the fairy of nature agreed.

"I'm green, I'm HIDEOUS, and I've given a whole new meaning to the term bloated," Stella corrected them. It was hard for me to watch Stella put herself down like this, but I had to remind myself that this was Stella, and appearances were pretty much everything to her. I could just imagine how hard it was for her to know that she looked this way.

"It's a spell; we'll figure out how to break it," Bloom told her.

"Stella! Bloom! You guys alright?" We could hear Brandon shout over to us.

Stella gasped. "This is bad."

Sky and Brandon were approaching us quickly. The fairy of the sun appeared to be greatly afraid of seeing her boyfriend.

"There is no way I can let Brandon see me like this," she told us, hiding behind a tree.

I felt sorry for her. I couldn't even try to think how this whole thing must be effecting my friend. Hopefully we'd break the spell quickly so her confidence would return.

"Hi there you guys," Bloom said to Sky.

"We were worried about you," he replied, "is everybody alright, Bloom?"

"We saw the explosions," Brandon added, gesturing to the palace tower were smoke could be seen. "What happened?"

"Fire spell back dropped," I replied vaguely. "No biggie."

"But then up in the aviary, guards fired at Stella and knocked her off the roof," the fairy of the Dragon Fire finished.

Brandon looked worried. "Well then where is she?" He asked, crossing his arms.

"She's…looking for an escape route so we can get off the palace grounds," Bloom quickly replied, covering for her . I could her Stella groan. "Yah. That's right. Something that the guards don't know about."

"Yah, and she might not be back for quite some time," the fairy of nature added, standing next to me. "So you probably shouldn't wait. You should just go get the ship and then we can meet you."

"Uh, this doesn't sound right," Sky said, scratching his head. He clearly didn't believe us.

"Yah. What are ya tryin' to hide?"

"Watch out!" Musa called them, saving us from having to try to explain ourselves.

All of us looked up and saw bright lights and we knew that palace guards had chased after us. _Oh great. _

Sky got hit in the back by one of the beams and fell onto the ground.

Brandon got overwhelmed when some of the guards began to surround him, their happens firmly grasped, ready for attack.

Sky struggled to get up, but winced in pain and groaned.

"Sky! Hold on!" Bloom called out. She attempted to run to him when I stopped her by catching hold of her elbow.

"Wait Bloom, this rain has zapped all our winx. We can't fight the guards like this," I told her firmly, letting go after. "Let the guys handle it."

I watched as the two of them began to take out their weapons and began to defend themselves, and us.

"Sky!" Bloom shouted to him after a few minutes. "Try to get the to the ship! Here! Take this!" She threw him the remote and he caught it. "We'll send you our coordinates."

"You got it!" He replied, firmly grasping it as another guard charged after him.

After a little bit of fighting, we saw Stella peer out from the tree. "They gone?" She asked cautiously.

"They're keeping the guards busy," the red haired fairy replied.

I'm going to be honest. I felt completely useless just standing there. I bet the others did too. I mean, we're the Winx Club. We're normally the ones who handle things like this. If only that rain hadn't drained us of our powers.

"Well, I do know a secret passage," Stella told us, and began to lead the way. "It's this way."

Suddenly, we could hear barking and we knew that this wasn't good. Stella saw them and tried to run faster.

"Stella, are these the dogs you told me about?" Bloom asked her. "The ones that are stronger than dragons?"

"Yep!" She yelled as we hurried.

I continued to go faster but then I heard Stella scream louder. I looked back and realized that she had tripped.

We ran back and I was so relieved when I saw that the dogs weren't hurting Stella at all. In fact, she was petting one of them happily.

"My father gave me these dogs when they were just puppies," she explained, smiling.

"Oh…cute," Flora said, attempting to compliment.

Standing up, the Solarian princess told the dogs, "Okay, good boy. Go on home now."

The dogs panted momentarily before they calmly walked away, obeying Stella's order.

"What do you say we find that secret passage out of here?" The last princess of Sparx suggested.

"Sure thing." She led the way. "It should be, right up ahead," she told us, pointing up to an area with a great amount of trees.

We started walking and trust me, I _really _wish we could've flown. It's much easier and doesn't use up as much energy. But, one must deal with what was has, right? I could live with it…for now.

After we'd been walking for a little while, Stella said, "Hey you guys, thanks a lot for covering for me back there by the palace. If Brandon saw me like this, as good a guy as he is, you can bet he'd be gone faster than a Solarian sunbeam."

"That's not true," Flora told her, and I agreed. "Brandon's not like that."

"All guys are, Flo, it's just their nature," the fairy of music corrected her as she stared up into the sky. It was still raining, and I could feel myself getting weaker by the second.

"Hey! It's right up there," Stella said suddenly, pointing. "It's in a hollow tree."

"How will we know which one?" I asked, confused. All the trees I saw before me looked similar.

"Fret not," she assured us. "When I was a little girl, my puppy Couture and I entered a seasonal treasure hunt. We were s'posed to find spell-flowers, but instead we discovered a series of elf tunnels that were inside an old, hollowed out, oak tree. I tied a ribbon to the branch so I'd always know which tree it was."

"And that came in very handy in life when I used the passage to sneak out to dances and parties and stuff. And now I'm using the passage to sneak away from a party: _my own_." She ended her sentence with a laugh.

"Hey, laughter is supposed to be a healing force," Bloom said.

We walked up the tree where we could clearly see a pink ribbon attached to one of the branches. Walking into the tunnels, at first we stayed quiet, looking around.

As we continued to walk, we discovered that the tunnels' floors were muddy, and they stuck to our boots.

"Boy, this tunnel is really creepy," the fairy of nature commented.

"Yah, it looks like some kind of weird animal den," Musa agreed.

"Well, it never did before." Stella told us.

It was dark inside, so using the little powers I had left, I attempted to make it easier to see. "That should lighten.." I trailed off as I groaned. My boots were getting stuck in the thick mud. "Good thing that I have tall boots on."

"This stuff is gross," agreed the fairy of music.

Flora seemed to be disgusted as well.

"I wish I had enough energy left to cast a dirt deflection spell," Bloom said.

We continued to walking through the tunnels.

"To tell you the truth, I don't remember all this mud," the fairy of the sun and moon said as we continued on. "Or that bottleneck."

"That bottleneck looks dangerous," Flora added.

I stopped walking and looked to see a small, narrow passage at the end of the tunnel. Would we be able to all fit? Logically, probably not, but we had to try or else we'd never get out of Solaria.

"If it narrows down, we could get stuck in there," Bloom told us.

I began to scan it to see if we could fit. "According to my scan, the passage isn't that deep." I assured them, smiling.

Bloom peered inside. "Did your scan detect anything slimy in there?"

"I'll go first," I said, just so she could trust my information.

"Hey," Musa told me, "if anything grabs you, just shout and we'll pull you out."

Slowly I began tot walk inside, carefully. I grew worried as rocks began to rain down, but made it out and into another tunnel.

I stood and waited for a little while, waiting for the others. Finally, everyone but Stella had made it.

"We made it," Flora said cheerfully as usual.

We started to walk away when Bloom said something that made us stop.

"Hold on. Are we forgetting something?"

Musa was the first to answer. "Narrow passage, plus-sized fairy. Not good."

I could hear Stella shout as we ran to go get her. "Plus-sized fairy? That's not very nice." We could tell that she was stuck.

We approached and began to try to pull her out.

Grabbing onto her hands that were now webbed, Bloom assured her, "We got you Stella."

"And I didn't mean anything by calling you plus-sized," Musa added.

We'd finally succeeded. We fell to that ground as Stella was freed, and then she fell down herself.

"Musa, you're to concerned with your figure," she said.

There were more gasps as more rocks began to fall and we felt shaking coming from the cavern.

"This part of the tunnel's right under the lake. Let's get out of here fast." Stella told us.

We quickly agreed with her instructions as a huge boulder fell so we ran away from it. It's time like this that I wish being a fairy didn't involve wearing such uncomfortable footwear. I'd been soaking my feet in hot water as soon as I got back to Alfea.

Stella gasped once we'd reached a fork in the tunnel. "This wasn't here before…When in doubt, go left!" She suggested, pointing.

Luckily, we made it just in time as the boulder was took big to enter the tunnel.

"If this wasn't here before, then someone must've dug it," Bloom explained.

"Someone or some-_thing_," the blond haired girl agreed.

"What do you mean some-_thing_? Something like what?"

Stella screamed when she looked up. "Like maybe those giant spiders!"

"There's nothing I hate more than being in a cave with giant spiders," Musa said. "And no magic."

A spider approached us and I was scared out of my mind. Considering how I come from a digital realm, we generally don't see creatures as much as you would in other places. _Especially_, not bugs.

More arachnids came out, creeping us all out.

Stella screamed.

Soon, most of the other girls were beginning to get caught in the spiders' webs and were getting stuck to the ceiling. Since I'd gotten away, I used most of the magic I had left to save them.

Then, we ran away to another part of the tunnel where there was water. We jumped inside, and those of us who had a little winx to create an air bubble so that we could breathe. But, to our shock, some leach-like creatures were sucking onto us and they made me feel extremely weak.

Most of us sunk down to the bottom, passing out. But, the next thing I knew were in some sort of fountain about water.

"The leaches are gone," Bloom smiled. "Thanks Stella."

"Hey, I might not be pretty, but I'm still tough."

* * *

Once we were back outside, we began to talk over what we would do.

"We have to call Brandon," Bloom was saying to Stella, "but if you wear this"-she said, creating a pink robe for her to wear with the little powers she had- "he won't be able to see you."

"Okay," Stella agreed. "Go ahead."

"Once the guys get us back to Alfea, we'll break the spell and get you back to your normal self," Bloom assured her.

* * *

Then, the guys did show up and took us back to Alfea at last. It felt so good to be back at the beautiful, placid school for fairies. Who knew how much I'd miss to be at school! But, hey, anywhere is better than getting chased, right?

Most of us had changed back into our regular clothes and we head through the school to the library to try to find a counter spell to fix Stella back.

"I can't keep hiding from Brandon," said Stella, "sooner or later he's gonna see me."

As we looked for some books to go over, Bloom and Flora were trying to convince Stella that they could put Brandon under an illusion spell so that he'd only be able to see her inner self.

* * *

Later, we went with the guys to find the Mirror of Truth that could help break the spell on Stella…supposedly.

We were on the ship when I started to pick something up on my monitor.

"Something's happening on my monitor," I said. "It looks like a tear in the atmosphere."

"We're going into a storm!" Timmy exclaimed.

Sky said, "It's not a storm Timmy; it's weather that is actually _attacking _the ship."

"The temperature outside the ship is falling fast," Bloom added.

"I've never seen weather change this quickly," I told them. Oh, I most certainly hadn't. What was going on?

Luckily, we made it through then, but suddenly something else was spotted. I looked up and gasped. _Please don't tell me that's a…_

_

* * *

_**Sorry for not updating in so long. I was just having a hard time trying to write for this chapter, but here it is. Hopefully the next one won't take as long. Please review if you like it or have any suggestions. **


	4. Mirror of Truth

**Sorry for not updating in so long. There really was no excuse for that since I was just putting it off this time. But, here's the latest chapter. Yes, this one was _really_ long, but I had to fit everything in. I did my best to make it more descriptive like you all suggested. Enjoy...**

* * *

_Chapter 4: __Mirror of Truth_

To my unhappiness, just looking up at the roof of our ship I could see the body of what I guessed was some type of giant bird. _Great. Just what we need to have to deal with now._

As the creature continued to guide us, the ship began to rock and this was nearly knocking all of us to the ground. I wish sometimes that it wasn't always _our_ ship that gets attacked like that. It gets really annoying after awhile. Trying to keep my balance, I hung onto the area where the controls were.

I could hear Bloom moan. "Try to pull up," she suggested.

"I'll boost the power-thrust," Timmy assured her as he began to do just that. After a moment, he spoke again. "Okay, go for it Sky!"

"The engine's not responding," Sky replied, disappointing us.

I walked over to Timmy. "Try the emergency force-field," I suggested, hoping that it would work. Sure, I'm filled with logic, but even that won't stop me from simply trying to hope and believe. I mean, that's what magic's all about, right?

I turned around and could get a glimpse of Stella and Brandon sitting by eachother. They were looking at one another with eyes filled with passion and Brandon was stroking his girlfriend's face. I knew Stella wasn't worried because of the spell she was under. Poor Stella. She was so obsessed with her looks that she was only willing to let Brandon see her while under a spell.

_Let's hope nothing like this never happens again. _I hoped. _I don't think Stella would be able to take it._

"We've got trouble!" Sky suddenly shouted, getting all of our attention.

We turned around to look at him, gasping in surprise. _What could it be? _I wondered. _Hopefully something we can overcome._

"The force-fields are gone which means the ship's structure won't hold up much longer."

That completely surprised me. What were we going to do? With all this bad news, thinking logically became difficult. I looked to Timmy and he seemed just as clueless as I was as he searched for a way out of this.

I turned back around and Brandon continued to hold on to Stella. I knew that he wouldn't let anything in the universe hurt his beloved girlfriend. That's one of the reason that I knew Stella loved him.

"Sky," Brandon called to him, as Stella clung to his shoulder, "you've gotta go to hyper power."

Sky turned around and looked to my boyfriend. "Timmy, open the hyper-valves," he directed. He sounded very serious, and I knew why. It mostly had to do with Bloom, clearly, but that wasn't surprising. Considering how he'd already almost lost her to Darkar, it was expected that he was sensitive about her staying safe.

I was standing behind the red-haired specialist and watched as he continued to press buttons on the controls. "Okay, they're opening."

I looked up and once again saw the strange beast. I cringed. I knew it was a griffin, but where did they come from? I'd look it up on the realm wide web later. Right now, I needed to stay focused.

Looking around at all the other girls, I could tell that they felt pretty much the same way as they appeared slightly worried but attempted to put on strong faces. That proved that even without a member of the Winx Club and one still cursed(by Chimera most likely), but we still did our best to not show fear.

Finally, I heard Timmy say, "They're on! Here we go!"

Since I was turned around, I could see Musa and Flora fall into their chairs as our speed began to pick up, but it barely did. That was bad news.

Timmy gasped as he looked back at the girls.

I wasn't the only one aware of the situation. As Sky continued to 'man' the controls, he added, "Oh boy, that bird is even stronger than our hyper power."

Finally, the fairy of the Dragon Fire decided to take this into her own hands. And by own hands, I mean _ours_. "Alright girls, it's our turn. Let's go get those griffins!"

We all agreed, and I even saw Musa pull a fist out of her confidence.

"I wish I could go with them," I could hear Stella faintly tell Brandon. I knew she must be disappointed. Hey, I would be too. We're the Winx Club, and that means we do this together, but right now she wasn't able to.

"Don't worry about it Stella," her boyfriend assured her, looking her in the eyes. "We all know if you could, you would."

"Let's do it!" Bloom decided, signaling us.

Together, those of us that were available began to transform into our fairy forms. We didn't use our Charmixes though, since we probably wouldn't need that much power.

After our wings had appeared, we flew out from a exit door of this ship and out into the canyon.

I looked around and the canyon was filled with great mountains. As soon as I turned around I'd spotted three of the griffins.

"Hey birds!" Bloom said. "Get off of our ship!" And she blasted it with an attack of orange fire. She hit it so hard, it nearly slammed into the mountain behind it.

"You got 'em!" Musa said, sounding relived.

"Yah, but now it looks like _he's_…uh, going to try to get us!"

Suddenly, the three griffins began to fly quickly toward us, clearly eager to attack, and maybe even…_eat us_. The thought of it horrified me.

"Birds tend to hate sudden loud sounds. Like this," Musa demonstrated, hitting one with a sonic blast of her power. The griffins began to be chased back and flew in the opposite direction.

I hovered closer to the music fairy and said, "That chased them away but, look! They're going after the ship again."

Flying as fast as our wings would take us, the four of us began to go after the ship. Inside I hoped nobody was hurt. And especially not Timmy. I didn't know exactly what I felt for him. Did I like him? Love him? Adore him? I didn't know, but I _did _know that we'd clearly gone beyond friends at that point.

Once we'd gotten closer, we paused momentarily, wondering how far away the ship was.

Suddenly, Flora called out, "Bloom, watch out!"

Quickly, the last princess of Sparx dodged as quickly as she could. I looked at Musa and could tell that she'd gotten sick of this already.

"Time to turn up the volume," she commented, continuing to hit the birds with another attack of powerful decibels of sound.

"Musa, please don't hurt them." Flora pleaded gently. I wasn't surprised she suggested that. That's just Flora; always caring about living things, even if they're trying to hurt you.

"Okay," the fairy of music replied, "I'll just stun 'em."

"Here comes another one!" Bloom announced, causing me to turn around. Yes, there was another griffin there alright, but I was prepared.

"Don't worry!" I assured my friends. "I've got him!" And hit him with one of my bright-green bursts of digital energy. That caused him to begin falling to the ground.

"Come on, let's help the guys." Bloom directed us, and we did just that, taking off after the ship.

As we flew, I realized that there was no possible way we'd reach there. "At this rate, we won't reach the ship on time. I'm going to go for it from here!" Sure, I knew all to well that this didn't look to logical of me, now did it? But, I trusted that it would work as long as I aimed properly.

"Take that!" I said as I shot the power at the large bird, causing it to fly off somewhere else.

I heard Bloom cheer behind me. "Yah!" She put her hand on my shoulder. "Awesome aim, Tecna."

I tried to remain serious though. We had a mission to complete, and it was important we get to it soon. After taking off again and spotting the ship, we were upset to see yet another one of the griffins holding onto our ship.

"Who do you think big bird is?" Musa asked. If the situation hadn't been serious, I would've laughed. I remembered when Bloom had once explained to us about characters on Earth television shows.

"Probably the griffin mother," the Sparxian princess answered.

"So than the others must've been her chicks," Flora realized as we all began to catch on.

"Let's launch a combined attack!" Musa suggested, clearly in the mood. That was what you'd expect from the hard-core fairy of music; always doing things out of her emotions and not what seemed best.

"But the mother is just trying to protect her babies," Flora told her, sounding concerned.

"If we don't do something she'll destroy _our_ babies." Bloom clearly was talking about our boyfriends.

I burst out laughing. I couldn't help it. Where did Bloom come up with this stuff? _Must be one of those things they teach you on Earth. That or she just thinks like that. _I hoped the first one or I would've had to start looking at my friend a different way.

After a few minutes, Bloom came up with a plan that she'd use a spell that we'd learned in Transformations. She thought that would do the trick.

"Musa are your ready?"

"Yep," she replied, "here I go." And she took off faster than the rest of us.

"WizGiz used this spell to move to a summer cottage, not to relocate giant birds," Flora reminded her.

"Yes," I added, "but it should still work." At that point I was getting a little bit frustrated that Flora kept disagreeing with the only plans we could come up with. Sometimes I wished she wouldn't worry about things all the time.

"Let's get in position!" Bloom directed us.

Following the plan, we hovered above the ship and after listening to Bloom's direction, Musa began to blast her sonic power at the bottom of the ship. It seemed to be working perfectly. I thought it would until I followed a sound behind me and looked up into the sky.

"Ready.." Bloom started, but I cut her off.

"Oh no!" I gasped, pointing. "The other griffins are coming back."

"They're trying to protect their mother," the nature fairy explained, sounding more concerned than she already had.

"We'll put the spell on all of them," Bloom told us as the three of us began to combine our powers into the spell. After a moment of sending more power into our convergence, Bloom announced, "Now!"

"_Changus Linuous._"**(1)** As we chanted, we shot the spell at the birds, causing them to disappear.

"We did it!" Bloom cheered, throwing a hand into the air.

"Where do you think that the griffins went?" Flora asked no one in particular, but I knew that the question was directed at me.

Using my technological powers, I showed a diagram just above my right wrist. "Since it's a new spell for us, probably not very far."

"Then I say let's book quick before they come back!"**(2)** Musa suggested, coming up from the bottom of our spacecraft.

Finally, went back into the ship but stayed in our fairy forms, just in case something else went wrong.

After we'd relaxed for a little, Brandon left his girlfriend's side and went over to the controls. "If we fly down by the rocks, the griffins wouldn't dare follow us."

_True_, I thought. It made sense, but there was yet another flaw within that plan.

"The computer's down so it won't be able to calculate the route for us." Timmy told him.

I walked back over to my boyfriend. "I'll help!" I assured him. "I'd say we should have enough processing power for that!" I laughed at my own joke, as ridiculous as it made me look.

"Well, yah, I guess that's true," Timmy agreed, chuckling himself. He returned to being serious. "Okay"-he adjusted his glasses momentarily- "he we go."

The ship began to rock considering out speed and I could hear Stella moan in fear. _Poor Stella_, I thought, returning my attention to my friend. _She must feel so vulnerable right now._

"Hold on tight," Sky suggested. "Time to rock and roll!"

"Careful," Timmy directed as Stella began to fall to the bottom of the ship. "The hatch is open."

Just from listening to her scream I could already tell that she must've fallen out. _Oh no. Not again._

"Timmy, what do we have?" I heard Sky ask.

"I see her on the monitor," the red-haired hero replied, pointing behind him. We all rushed to get a look, and indeed, there was a good view of Stella, hanging onto a piece of the mountains.

"Alright! She's safe!" Brandon called out. "Let's go get her!"

After some pulling, Stella had safely been transported back into the ship and her boyfriend collapsed on the ground from exhaustion.

"Good job Brandon," Timmy told him. "That was awesome."

I looked at Timmy. He was such a handsome guy, I knew. Why was it so hard for me to admit my feelings to him? Sure, we were dating now, yet I still found it difficult to just go up to him and say, "You're the most wonderful guy I've ever met". Why? I had no idea. But, that was just me. It wasn't until later that I'd come out of my shell. And by later, I mean _way _later.

"Now unless anyone else wants to go skydiving, or peek hopping, I suggest we head directly to the ice caves."

"Good idea," Bloom agreed, speaking for us. "And what do you say that this time, we travel with the hatch door shut?"

"You got it," the prince of Eraklyon replied, as we continued to soar through the air, on our way to find the Mirror of Truth.

The rest of flight there was, as 'they' say, "smooth sailing". We got to the caves without any trouble. After landing, we all got out and began to walk around.

Walking next to my friend Musa, we continued through the caves. "Hey!" She pointed, "there's the stone gate."

"That's where the ice-spirits are," Stella explained, also pointing.

"And who are the ice-spirits?" Brandon wondered as we continued to walk. I knew, but I decided to let somebody else answer for once.

"The ancient legends say they're as old as ice itself," Flora answered as she walked. "And they're the ones who watch over the Mirror of Truth."

"Which is the magic mirror which is supposed to give me back my looks," Stella concluded, still sounding bitter over the spell she'd been cursed with.

"I sure hope the ice-spirits are friendly," Bloom was saying as she walked closer to Flora.

"I wouldn't want to be stuck down here with some bugging spirits, that's for sure," Musa added.

In thought, I made a diagram appear above my wrist once more, but this one was a little different. "Sensors indicate that the cave widens out just about ahead and turns into kind of a rotunda."

As we walked, we saw some pillars of ice and they began to glow and shimmer. We gasped in awe. What as going on? We wondered.

"This is really beautiful, but I wonder what it is." Suddenly a booming voice spoke, cutting Stella off.

"This is where we are," the voice said.

We continued to be amazed as we looked around, wondering where it could've come from.

"Tell us what you want," the strange voice continued.

"Uh, we're looking for the keepers of the Mirror of Truth," the fairy of the Dragon Fire answered.

"That is who you stand before." I looked up and saw that the pillars now bore faces like that of old men, but they were still combined into the ice. What were they? "Now speak."

"Well, we need your help. Please?"

"We see that one of you has been touched by evil, by a dark magic that has hidden her true-self from the world. Step forward now," the voice commanded, and the Solarian princess followed its order.

"Tell us why we should help you."

After taking off her hood, Stella said, "Because I wasn't meant to be like this."

"That is for the mirror to decide," the voice responded. "First you must find the mirror and then you must touch its heart. That is the only way for the spell to be broken."

"What does that mean?" Stella inquired.

"That is all." The voice sounded firm.

"Wait! The mirror has a heart? I don't understand!" The Solarian princess did what she could to try to convince them to tell her more, but Brandon attempted to stop her.

But, Bloom stopped him. "Whoa Brandon, maybe you should wait out here. It's kind of like…well, you know."

"It's a girls only thing," Flora explained.

We all went to Stella. Trying to cheer her up, I said, "Come on! Let's go find that mirror!"

* * *

We walked and walked through the tunnels of the caves. They were crystallized and sparkled if you caught a good glimpse of them. At one point, it seemed Stella must've wandered off on her own and may have gotten lost.

"Hello," Bloom said, "Stella?"

I turned around but didn't see her at all. Where had she gone? Was she alright? Would the spell ever be broken?

"Stella?" Flora called out, but there was no answer to that either. I started getting more worried.

"Where'd she go?" The fairy of Sparx wondered, but none of us had any idea and only shrugged in response.

"Stella!" I called, but she didn't answer. Where was Stella?

"Yo, Stella!" Musa said.

Suddenly, from her sonic hearing, Musa could hear footsteps, so we followed the sound to another room and once she'd arrived, there was Stella, and Brandon was close-by.

"Stella," the Eraklyon squire was saying."

"You don't understand," she insisted.

"I do."

"You see me as my old-self," she replied, sounding more emotional with each word. "Because of Flora's spell."

"Stella, maybe this isn't the best time to tell you this, but I can see what you look like." There was an excited response to that.

"But, how is that possible?" Stella wondered.

"Flora's illusion spell wore off back on the ship," her boyfriend explained.

She seemed surprised. "And you can still look at me, even though I look like a hideous monster?"

"You're still the same beautiful person inside. You'll have the same heart, Stella. Girls, tell her what you see when you look at her," he suggested, gesturing to us.

To me, Stella and Brandon's little moment was absolutely adorable. I can't imagine what it must've felt like for my poor friend, but her boyfriend was perfect in the way he comforted her. _If only me and Timmy were that compatible. _We were, but I just didn't know it at the time.

"I see a totally honest person who always says what's on her mind," I began, completely sincere.

"Who's cheerful and upbeat and fun," Flora continued.

Musa replied, "A kind of crazy fairy who always makes me laugh."

"And I see a best friend forever," Bloom concluded.

"Do you really think all that about me? I always thought people just thought I was pretty." Suddenly, a tear dropped from her eyes and fell into the pond. For me, that was a very emotional moment.

Brandon walked over to his girlfriend with a gift in his hand. "Stella," he said, "and I still love you now." He held the present out to her. "Take this: it's the gift I got you for your Princess' ball."

Quickly, she accepted it and opened it up. "It's something that my father gave to my mother," Brandon explained as she held up a makeup mirror. "And they passed on to me. In my family, this gift means you're going to love someone for the rest of your life. Maybe I'm jumping the gun here; I'm mean, we're still in high school and everything."

"Thank you, shnookums." Stella replied, putting her hand over his. "This is the best present that anyone has ever given me." They hugged, and another tear dropped into the pond. This time, Stella grew radiant and suddenly, she was herself again. I was so overjoyed for her.

"What," Stella gasped, looking her hand over. Suddenly, she laughed out of joy and twirled around. "I'm myself again!"

Me and the rest of the Winx Club(well, those of us there), ran to her and embraced her. I can't describe how happy it made me to see that Stella was happy.

"You did well, fairy of the sun and moon." The now familiar voice commented. "You passed the test."

We gasped. Test? What test?

"You proved that your feelings are deep and true," it finished, answering our unspoken question.

"But it was more than just that that broke the spell, wasn't it?" Flora asked.

"The heart of the mirror was touched; touched by love."

"By love?" My friend exclaimed. "Wow! You hear that Brandon? It was love that saved me!"

"Mission accomplished!" Bloom said. "Our Stella is back!"

"Than what do you say we head for home?" Brandon suggested, and we all had to agree with him.

"Yah," Sky replied.

Musa threw her hands up into the air. "I can't wait to get back to…uh oh, tomorrow's the first day of school."

We groaned as we headed back to the ship. Sure, I'm a genius in some people's eyes and possess a photographic memory, but that doesn't mean I like school. Me? Like school? Never. The only reason I wasn't that bothered by it was because it was start of my senior year.

_Senior year_, I thought as we headed back to Magix. _I wonder what kinds of adventure this year will bring._

* * *

Since none of us really went anywhere during break, we just headed back to Alfea and the next morning we prepared for a new day of classes, and from what I'd heard, this year's curriculum was supposed to be the hardest it'd ever been.

"I've always felt that who you are inside is more important than looks," Stella was saying as we all(and I'm mean _all_) had gathered in the dorm.

"Sure," Musa said sarcastically, making a face. "That's why you kept saying, 'Please, gimme back my face!'"

The majority of us laughed while Stella continued to glare at the fairy of music, which I'd completely seen coming.

"Actually, that monster transformation really softened my skin," the princess of Solaria insisted, looking herself over in the mirror. "Here," she turned to Musa, getting her back, "check it out."

"I think I'll pass on that, but thanks," which caused Stella to give her another glare.

"Hey!" Bloom pointed out, looking out the window. "Did you see how many new fairies are here?"

"Yah," Flora answered, "as a matter of fact, I already met a girl from a realm where plants actually write books."

"I guess they're the kind that are easy to leaf through," I joked, walking to another side of the room. "Okay, not funny." I added as the room stayed silent.

Since Layla was back, Flora asked, "Layla, want to go walk around the quad with me?"

The princess of Tides didn't seem to be paying attention at first, but, snapping out of her trance, she replied, "No thanks. I still have to go unpack." From what I could tell, she looked really down. Then she stood and left the room.

Stella and Musa seemed curious about what was going on, but just shrugged and went off somewhere themselves.

Bloom said, "I'm worried about Layla. She seems out of it." I had to agree and then decided to leave the room myself.

* * *

Not to much later, I took a walk around Alfea, wondering about what kind of fairies had come to school this year. In my time at the school, I'd seen all types of fairies, but nothing could've prepared me for who I saw as soon as I'd turned around from feeling a slight tapping on my shoulder.

"No way," I gasped, completely flabbergasted.

The girl before me frowned, her eyes, the same color as my own, just like her hair, showed fake sorrow. "What? You're not happy to see me? Come on Gem, I can't remember you ever treating family like that-well, except for Trey."

I smiled and embraced her. "Cryssie," I said. "Of course I'm happy to see you? But, what are you doing here? Didn't you say you didn't want to go to Alfea?"

After we'd broken apart, she shrugged. "Well, considering how you've made such a big success here, that kind of changed my mind."

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

"Come on, you always did like surprises." She smiled. "Now, isn't this going to be fun? We're finally going to school together in Magix!"

"I know Crystal**(3)**," I replied, smiling also, "and I'm sure the girls will be thrilled when they meet you."

She clearly didn't expect me to say that. "Me, meet the rest of the Winx Club? Wow, that sounds awesome 'cuz." She checked the time. "Well, I've gotta go check out my dorm-I'm a senior, but am still taking some freshman classes since I didn't earn my Charmix. Bye!"

I waved to her and smiled. Crystal is my cousin, yet most people who first meet us swear that we couldn't be anything less than sisters, and it wasn't just because of our looks. We'd both grown up together in the palace of Zenith since my parents were in the court and she's the princess, so, we really bonded. Even though I had the other girls, Crystal and I shared a closer bond since she'd been my very first friend.

_Wow, can this year get any better? _I thought. _With Crystal here, now nothing could go wrong, especially with the witches gone. _But I had no idea just how wrong I really was.

* * *

That day, we'd all gathered in the quad to listen to Ms. Faragonda as she gave an announcement. She, Ms. Griselda, Professor WizGiz, Professor Avalon(the real one, not the fake one I accused), and Professor Palladium stood on a platform so we could all watch them properly, I guessed.

"A very warm welcome to you Alfea fairies," the headmistress began. "I'd like to begin by telling the third-years about their final examination."

"We just got here and she's already talking about finals?" One girl asked.

"I still have to unpack." Another said. "Then I'll worry about exams."

"This year's final examination is a very important step in your training as fairies," she continued. "Last year, the goal of the second year was to earn your Charmix. This year your goal will be to get your Enchantix."

_Enchantix? _I thought. _That sounds impossible. _I'd already known how to earn it, and I knew almost no one who'd successfully become an Enchantix fairy. Not even my mother or aunt Lera had. If they couldn't, how would I?

"This step will give you access to new powers like fairy powder and miniaturization. This is your chance to become a full-fledged fairy."

"A full-fledged fairy?" Musa asked me.

I shrugged in response. I knew that technically wasn't true since there were many forms of fairies besides Enchantix.

"Plus," Ms. Faragonda added, "it's the only way you can pass your third year. Those who pass this test will be rewarded so richly and so profoundly that your lives will be changed forever. The others will stay exactly the same as they are now."

"What should we do to prepare for the test, Ms. F?" Stella asked.

"You don't have to study or train yourselves." She paused as Stella spoke to Flora. "The test will find you at a critical moment in time. It will require you to rescue someone from your own world, and it will require you to do this by making a great sacrifice. This is the only way you can earn your Enchantix."

"So, I just have to save someone from Solaria. I just hope it's not Chimera!" Stella exclaimed, clearly irritated at the thought.

"And then you will be able to fulfill your purpose as full-fledged fairies and protect your people and your worlds from evil and destruction."

I felt bad for Bloom. Without even looking at her I could tell that she was very distressed. I just knew she was asking herself how she would earn her Enchantix powers. To myself, I hoped as greatly as I could that somehow, she would find a way.

* * *

Later, we all followed Bloom's idea to try to cheer Layla up and went to her dorm. We gathered in front of the door.

"Hey, Layla!" Musa called to get her attention.

She opened the door and seemed surprised at our presence.

"Come on, girl's night out," Bloom said.

"Oh," she frowned, "I'm sorry you guys, but I don't feel much like going out tonight."

"We're your friends Layla," Musa objected, "we can help you. But you gotta tell us what's up. I mean, how bad could it be?"

"Bad, Musa. Really bad." Layla put her hand to her head, as if it hurt. It probably did as distressed as she appeared.

But, after a little more persuading, she let us in and we all prepared ourselves to hear whatever it was that she had to tell us.

"My planet was attacked by a creature named Baltor," she began. "He escaped from the Omega Dimension and invaded Tides. He's destroying the entire realm and no matter what we do, we can't stop him. My world, in fact, the entire universe, is in danger." She sighed.

I felt sorry for her. Someone had escaped from the Omega Dimension and was trying to take over the universe? Just the thought of it sent chills down my spine.

"How did this happen? Isn't Omega escape-proof?" Bloom asked.

"Well, it's supposed to be. The only way out of Omega is through a portal that's under constant watch by the mermaid guards. But, somehow, Baltor broke through and turned the mermaids into something…evil. Something monstrous. And the witches may be there too." Just hearing the word "witches" instantly made us realize who she was talking about.

We all gasped.

"No one's sure but they were all dropped in Omega the same day Baltor broke out. I'm worried about my parents." She had stood and was touching one of her ceiling plants. "I'm worried about my people."

"Does the Magix Council know about this?" I asked.

"Absolutely. They were notified as soon as the portal was breached."

"Well, can't _they_ stop Baltor?" Stella wondered.

"No," Layla answered, "cause everyone who tries to fight Baltor ends up becoming one of his minions. And when that happens, he takes control of both their will, and their power. Even our elite mermaid guard is helpless against him. Tides is under siege, and a state of emergency has been declared. The Magix Council came to our palace, and told my father they think Tides is only Baltor's first stop. They're worried about all the realms. They've sent reinforcements, but I don't think it's going to help."

_Oh no. If Tides is only his first stop, where does he plan to go to next?_

* * *

That night, after classes, Bloom called us in for a meeting in the common area of our dorm. She seemed very serious, and I immediately knew what she was up to, but didn't say anything.

"Layla's world is in grave danger," she said.

"Please Bloom," Stella begged. "Don't say what I think you're about to say."

"Stella, the whole Magical Dimension may be in danger. We can't just do nothing."

"Yah," the fairy of music agreed. "We're not going to let our girl Layla down."

"We're the Winx Club." Bloom said.

I walked over to her and continued, "And that means we stick by each other."

"We're gonna find this Baltor guy, and stop him. We can't allow a tragedy like the one that happened on my planet, seventeen years ago, to happen on Tides." She turned to Layla as they both sat on a bed. "I couldn't save my people, but I can try to save yours, Layla."

We all agreed and showed our good friend that we planned to stick by her, even if this meant getting in danger.

"Thanks girls, and thank you Bloom."

_If Baltor is really so powerful, he has no idea what he's up against. _I thought. _We'll stop him. I'm not going to let him destroy any worlds. Especially not my friends'._

_

* * *

_**(1): I actually have no idea what they said, so that's my best guess.**

**(2): Now I love Musa and all, but sometimes I think 4kids gives her _too_ many lines that are modern. **

**(3): For those of you who read "A Puzzle Solved", you'll recognize her. I put her in this story since Tecna needs more of a past so I'm mostly keeping it like I did in that story-minus all the lies she told.**

**Well, I hope you liked this chapter. If you didn't, tell me so I can improve. By the way, does anyone think I should change the title? I don't really like it, so if you have suggestions, I'd appreciate them. The only thing I could think of changing it to is A New Look, but that doens't sound much better, does it?**

**Coming next: Mission to Tides. **


	5. Mission to Tides

_Chapter 5: __Mission to Tides_

Even though Layla's room was away from my own, I knew Layla didn't get any sleep that night. She was to worried, to anxious. She just wanted to throw Baltor out of her realm so things could be happy again, and me and the girls were willing to do whatever it took to help her do just that.

The next morning, before classes started, we all gathered in Bloom and Flora's room. If we _were_ going to go to Tides, we'd have to have a plan.

"Alright," Bloom said, "we know we're going to Tides. The question is, how do we convince Ms. F to let us go?"

"Maybe it's better if we don't ask," Musa suggested, "because if she says no, what then?"

I couldn't help but agree. "Musa's right, if we were to directly defy our headmistress, we'd be suspended, or even worse, expelled. But if we don't ask her…"

Stella finished my thought. "Than we're just going to help a good friend in an emergency situation, and _who_ could find fault with that?" She finished by walking over to the nearest closet.

"Now," she said, "the first step daw-lings is for me to call the school nurse." She put on a hat. What I wanted to know is how she thought anybody could possibly believe that. If I'd ever tried that at home, my parents would've figured it out in a few seconds flat.

Musa asked, "And tell her what, Stella? That we're all going on an emergency ski vacation?"

What made it even more funny was that she dawned a scarf. "No…" She put her hand to her ear as to fake a phone. "Good morning nurse…" Fake sneeze. "This is Stella and I have a terrible co-" Sneeze. "Fever and I won't be in class for-" Sneeze. (They even kept getting more high pitched.) "A few days and-"

Bloom didn't seem to want to let her finish. "Oh, come on." Stella seemed surprise and faked another sneeze. "I don't know how things work on Solaria, Stella, but no one on Earth would fall for that kind of excuse."

"It's all in the delivery," the fairy of the sun and moon insisted. She took the hat off and walked around. "And since I'm an expert at this, I suggest that I stay here and cover for the rest of you." I wouldn't have been surprised if she'd had that in mind all morning.

Musa didn't like the sound of that. "Hold on. Are you trying to bail out on going to Tides with us?"

"I'm not bailing, I'm just really worried about what's happening on Solaria, and need to stay here to monitor the situation." She finished walking toward Chatta, who was hovering in the air, and silent, which was odd for the pixie of chatter.

"Have you forgotten what happened with my father?" Stella asked us. She must've been reliving her Princess' ball. "When he ordered his guards to arrest me? To not recognize your own daughter no matter what she looks like, you have to be under some kind of powerful spell. There's no other explanation for it."

Her next few words went about Countess Cassandra and Chimera. She even remarked that Chimera had to go to Beta because she couldn't get into Alfea. Possibly, for she seemed to much like a witch, even though she was a fairy.

"Hey," Layla said, touching her shoulder. "I completely understand, Stella. Your world is under siege too." She turned to the rest of us. "Stella needs your support just as much as I do."

"You're right, Layla," Musa agreed as the two of us went over to the hug them. And then the others joined us.

After that was decided, there was still one more problem. "How," Flora asked, "are we going to get there?"

Luckily, I knew just the way. After making a quick trip to my room, I returned with a new invention that me and Timmy had been working on.

I held it up for everyone to see. "Timmy and I just finished this. And if it works properly, it'll make small, inter-dimensional passages through which we can travel." At this point, the device was in the air by itself.

"_If _it works?"

"Well, it is new." To my happiness, it did just what it was supposed, and with the help of modern magical technology, a portal appeared right in front of us.

"Okay, here I go." Not hesitating one bit, I walked through the portal and instantly found myself falling through a sort of tunnel of techno energy. The other girls followed and we were all wondering how long it would take until this ride was over, especially me. I'd never liked roller coaster or slides or anything of the nature.

Finally, we found ourselves plopped right on our feet in the great palace of Tides. We landed in front of Layla's parents as they sat on their thrones.

Layla's parents seemed so happy to see her. They stood and walked over to her as she did the same thing.

"Mom, Dad, are you guys okay?"

"Yes dear," her mother said.

"Fine," her father added.

"I can't wait to tell Timmy that our invention worked!" I said, but was caught off guard when that same device hit me on the head. I caught it and felt irritated for a moment. Why did things like this always happen to me?

"The kingdom is in trouble," Layla's father told her.

"I know, that's why I came back and brought my friends with me. They want to help us fight Baltor. They want to help save Tides."

"Your majesties," we all said, bowing.

"Thank you, but you should not have come here," the king told us. He seemed quite serious.

His wife agreed. "Baltor is the most dangerous enemy we have ever faced."

"We can not ask outsiders to take such a risk for us."

"My friends are not outsiders." Layla disagreed.

"If that is truly the case, then the choice is theirs to make, but they should know that since Baltor escaped, he has turned over half of our mermaids into sea-monsters and he has taken their power as his own. And now our army can't find him. We think he will emerge soon from the Omega portal and launch a major attack on Tides."

The queen tried to convince Layla. "We know you're strong, but I fear for your safety Layla."

"We'll watch out for her your majesty," Bloom assured them. "I promise."

After that, we exited the palace and went out into the realm. Layla had described that he world was turning into an unpleasant place, but this was just awful. I could only imagine what it must've felt like for her to see her planet looking this way.

When we went out onto the great body of water, Layla said, "The sea used to be pristine. And now take a look at it; it's like it's a wasteland."

Bloom got down and felt it. "The water is stagnant, as if it were a lifeless sea."

Out of nowhere, a creature shot out of the water and startled us. It seemed scary and evil.

"That's one of the mermaids Baltor turned into a monster," the fluid fairy told us.

I looked out into the sea and tons of mermaids were just as the one we'd seen before. Whoever Baltor was, he was incredibly evil, no doubt about it.

Using her powers over morphix(water molecules), Layla created a pair of binoculars. "The sea is so full of them. There are to many to count."

"What we need to do is get a sense of what Baltor's power is really like," I suggested, "then maybe we can figure out his weakness."

"How?" Bloom asked me.

"Let's start by trying to break that mermaid's spell"-I pointed at the one I was talking about- "if we succeed, we'll know how strong his magic is and we can also reduce his mermaid army."

Layla had an idea just how we could do that. "I know, let's use the goodness restoration spell we learned from Palladium last year."

"Alright girls," Bloom said, "let's go save some mermaids!"

And as always, we instantly transformed ourselves into our fairy forms. After that, we flew into the air and above the mermaid that we planned to help save.

"Alright," Layla commanded, "now summon your strongest positive memory."

Doing so, we all aimed our powers in a convergence way and hummed as we did so. We didn't know why, we just found ourselves humming. The spell instantly trapped the mermaid, and it looked like we'd succeeded.

Bloom went over to the mermaid as well as Layla. "Don't be afraid!"

"We want to help you!" Layla added.

"Just trust us!"

But, sadly, this showed that Baltor was incredibly powerful for the mermaid instantly broke out and sent the two other girls flying.

After that, Layla suggested that we try the idea again and we did just that. When it seemed like our positive energy worked, the mermaid revoked back to its evil state.

_This Baltor guy is more powerful than I thought…_

And then, the mermaid came toward me and slashed its tail at me, knocking me down into the water. Trust me, when a sea it stagnant, it's not pleasant to be going swimming. Plus, there's that saying that water and technology don't mix, and that counts for technology fairies.

I sat there for a moment, and when I was awake again, I was being helped up by Flora and Layla. "That's one tough mermaid," I said.

Musa didn't seem afraid. When I was back up, she sent an attack at it. It was so powerful, you could hear the beat. "If she thinks she's so bad, I'll just play her my baddest tune!" Her sonic waves seemed to powerful, so the mermaid disappeared under the water. "Hey, where're you going mermaid? That was just the opening verse!"

Flora laughed. "I guess you two have different taste in music."

Continuing our adventure in Tides, we flew off threw the land and even got caught in a tough draft of wind. And to make matters worse, a huge, and by huge, I mean _huge _wave was in front of us, so we had to fly backwards, trying to avoid getting caught in it. Sadly, even when we'd reached land, we still got soaked and landed on our backs on the ground.

Layla was the first to stand. "My father was right. Tides is to dangerous."

"Hey," Bloom said, "if anything, that wave was kind of refreshing."

Layla didn't share the Dragon Fire fairy's attitude. "I know you guys would never complain, but I'm putting you at to much risk. If we don't close the Omega portal soon, Baltor's going to release the other prisoners who are kept there, and I don't even want to imagine how nasty that could get. We have to find Baltor's hideout and we have to find it right away."

"Every time you mention Baltor's name I have these visions, weird visions of Sparx. And what's even weirder is that I see things I couldn't have seen when I was just a baby. And then everything just starts racing through my head until it all goes to black." Just seeing the distressed look on Bloom's face told me that she was really freaked out by all this.

"Okay girls," Musa said, "if we're going to stop Baltor, we should get going before _he _stops _us_."

"Good idea," Layla agreed, taking off into the air, as did we all.

As we flew, Bloom seemed quite determined. "The spell that's on the mermaids is strong, but it can't be irreversible."

I had an idea on how we could do it. "It's possible that when we hit Baltor, it could release his grip on them long enough for them to break free."

Musa seemed to like the sound of that. "Then I say, let's go hit him hard!"

But, just when we were about to follow through with our plan, guess who decided to show up? Our old enemies: Icy, Darcy, and Stormy. I heard that they'd been sentenced to the Omega Dimension after the thing with Darkar, so it made sense that they'd been working with Baltor.

"Only problem is that you have to get through us!" Stormy declared.

"You three are supposed to be locked in the Omega Dimension!" Bloom gasped.

"Yah," Darcy said, "but it was so boring that we decided it would be much more fun to trash Layla's realm."

"And to destroy you!" Icy added. Immediately after, she began to fire attacks at us, but missed every time.

Darcy seemed to treat this like a game as she tried to hit Musa. "The first one to knock a fairy out of the sky wins!" But, Musa dodged quickly.

"Then I win!" Stormy said excitedly as she sent Flora flying downward.

Bloom chased after her, but it seemed that Icy didn't want her to save the nature fairy, resulting in Bloom's wings getting frozen.

"I'm coming Bloom!" Layla assured her, but Darcy tried to get. Layla blocked that attack while Bloom fixed her wings.

Just before Flora was about to hit the water, Musa and I saved her and held her up. "What?" She asked. "What is happening?"

While Flora recovered, Bloom and Icy got into a heated battle. It reminded me a lot of the huge battle during freshman year at Alfea, only this time, both had grown much more powerful.

"You'd think you'd understand the balance of power by now Icy!" Bloom sent an attack of fire right at the witch, knocking her down. "Whenever you face us, you lose!"

To keep herself from drowning in the water, Icy created a patch of ice to land safely on, and glared _at_ us.

When Darcy and Stormy's backs were turned, Layla cuffed them with some more of her morphix. "You've caused enough damage to Tides! You're going back to Omega!"

It was amusing as the two witches thought they could easily break it by pulling apart. Instead, they ended up getting completely tied up together.

"Group five!" Bloom suggested, as we all grabbed hands.

"With the witches out of the way, there's nothing between us and Baltor."

"Then let's go get him!" Bloom seemed very determined again.

Sadly, Icy had another trick up her sleeve. While we were talking, she sent a block of ice at Bloom.

The rest of us chased after her. _Can she just lose gracefully? She is the most horrible witch I've known in my entire life._

To pay those the ice witch back, we hit her with some of our strongest attacks, having no idea where Bloom was. All we were focused on was taking Icy out.

Flora actually seemed angry, which she rarely ever was. "You hit Bloom in the back and that's low Icy!"

"And fighting four against one? What do you call that?"

"Hey! You're the aggressor here!" I yelled as once again, I was the one who ended up getting hit.

"That's right!" Musa agreed. "You're an escaped convict witch, and we're sending you back to prison!"

We continued to hit her with all we had, and she clearly had grown strong. It seemed that Baltor had shared some of his power with her. To finish her off, Musa suggested we use convergence.

Getting in a circle, we focused our powers as well as we could. And when we did hit her, she got sent right into the water.

We sighed of relief. "Let's go find Bloom and make sure she's okay." Flora suggested. I worried that she was underwater.

"Over there!" Layla pointed toward some type of stone building and there was Bloom all right. The only problem? She was with Baltor.

Our instincts kicked in and we found ourselves flying probably around ten miles per hour to get our friend back to safety. We hit Baltor, but nothing we did seemed to faze him at all.

_If that didn't even touch him, how are we going to save Tides? _I wondered. He'd only been here for a few weeks or so and the whole realm was in bondage. I could only imagine how bad it could end up in a month. I cringed at that thought.

From the distance, I saw Bloom attack Baltor herself, and yet somehow, he grabbed her fire and turned it to ashes.

"Tides is my realm Baltor!" Layla told him. "And you're done here."

It frightened me when I saw him conjure up a great deal of power. It was so strong that it was creating large waves in the water, which we tried to avoid.

"Darkness, descend upon you and take away your sight!" I heard Baltor shout.

After a blinding light shone, Layla said, "I can't see anything!"

We all went to her side. "We're here for you Layla!"

"I can't see anything, Bloom. I'm blind."

At that moment, I felt nothing at all but absolute rage toward Baltor. _When I get the chance, I'm going to stop him, and _maybe_ rip him to shreds myself for hurting one of my friends._

_

* * *

_

Pretty sad ending to an episode, but at least something good happens in the next one. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.


End file.
